


When Challenges are Necessary

by GamLamLudi



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Funny, Potential Spoilers, Pre-Romance, light cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 00:47:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19842037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamLamLudi/pseuds/GamLamLudi
Summary: Felix had asked Byleth to provide him a challenge in order to further his skills, little did he know that she'd set him up with the absolute worst challenge.





	When Challenges are Necessary

How could this have happened, to him of all things… Felix huffed rather irritably glaring at the inanimate object in front of him. He already knew he had burst his brain as he mindlessly flipped through the book, his foot tapping against the ground in the near empty study hall.

“Hey Felix, what’s up!” Sylvain called out to him, Ingrid following silently beside him, wordlessly he dramatically lifted the book up to show them his current frustrations and then slammed it back onto the table.

“Still trying to work on it?” Ingrid almost looked impressed; he wasn’t surprised about it since he had been there for almost an hour trying to figure out how the hell he was going to learn reason magic let alone study.

“When I asked professor Byleth to give me a challenge to help me further my abilities, she gave me this, **this**! of all things!” Crossing one leg over the other, he leaned his head against his hand to stare blankly at the pages in front of him.

“Perhaps she has her reasons, after all she gave me the same homework even without me asking for a challenge.” Sylvain stated nonchalantly before a wry smile spread across his face, “You know Felix, I could always help you out if you need help, Professor Byleth has told me that I’ve been doing exceptionally well despite not really working on it before.”

“Piss off Gautier.” He spat, “I already know my strengths, she could have given me more regarding…” He decided not to continue, but what irritated him even more was that she placed reason magic as his core class which meant in order for him to graduate, he had to pass. It was almost like she was more interested in just putting him in magic all together, collectively the blue lions didn't have many individuals proficient but still, why him?!

“Have you spoken to her about it?” Ingrid asked despite the fact that he had confronted Byleth regularly in class about wishing to change his core classes, her response was always ‘well you asked for a challenge, therefore until you show me that you truly can’t do it, you’ll just have to make do’. Even though she never stated it outright and was usually stated in a professional manner; it’s how he interpreted it.

“I already have.” Felix muttered.

“More like aggressively demanded to be removed from reason magic.” Sylvain responded.

“And you’ve never actually asked why as far as we’ve heard.” Ingrid added, this soured his mood more, every time they found him mulling over it they would always take Byleth’s side. With his temper reaching maximum levels, he shut the book with a resolute thud, wordlessly got up from his chair and headed out of the study hall leaving his friends behind.

With a new determination, Felix marched around campus trying to find Byleth, she rarely stayed in one place too long. Thankfully for him however, she was by the fishing dock, if he had any less impulse control he would have walked up while she struggled to wrangle in a fish and surprise her into dropping the pole.

Instead he took a deep breath and waited for her to pull a relatively large sea bass from the water with shocking levels of ease. The fish struggled in her arms as she looked around, spotted him and smiled in a way that made him feel something he couldn't quite place.

“Felix, could you help me with this.” He sighed, again, as he silently walked over and helped her put the behemoth into a container of water that was far too small for it. The smile appeared again as she thanked him for the help, it was small but something that caused his ears to go slightly pink as he looked away.

Her stoic expression returned as she began to set more bait onto the fish hook, Felix took a seat a spot a little bit away from her, he rested his head onto his knee.

“So, what’s bothering you?” She said after casting the line out, her perception was relatively frightening, even with his stone-faced expressions she could always tell when he and others were bothered by stuff.

“…gic” he muttered.

“I didn’t hear that.” Byleth responded.

“Why are you so damn determined to put me in reason magic!” He said a little louder than he intended, it was more accusatory than questioning.

Byleth was unmoved by his outburst, she remained silent for a few moments before speaking “Why do you think I gave you reason magic as your challenge?”

“To deter me from my actual training, you know my old man will come back with a fury if he found out that my education was solely focused on magic!”

“Alright.” Byleth reeled in her line before getting up, “Come with me Fraldarius” She didn’t even seem to stop for him to get to his feet as she headed somewhere. He caught up to her relatively easily despite the fact, she took twists and turns until she got to an open enough area with some practice swords. “Here.” She handed him one of the two practice blades.

Despite his confusion, Felix took the sword and took his spot far enough to prepare for the duel. “Start!”

*Smack*

Felix pulled back for another strike, Byleth took the opportunity to strike him from all angles, normally she pulled back on her strikes in training but this time there was no breathing room against the demonic teacher. Within seconds she had bruised and disarmed him in a relatively unorthadox way by grabbing his arm and twisting until he let go, then threw the sword away from reach and pointed her blade at his neck.

“How do you plan to fight Fraldarius?” The coldness of her eyes scared him more than the blade, without the ability to fight back he stared in awe at how fast she struck him down, few people had that ability.

“You win this one” as she had with pretty much every other time. A small amount of irritation showed up in her eyes as she tapped the top of his head with her sword.

“Again then.” She walked over to the wooden sword as he picked himself back up, the developing bruises on his body including arms, torso, and knees complained under the movement. He took the blade and readied himself, this time he struck fast and hard, she was able to easily defend against his strikes with her own blade however her offensive strikes were weak enough to barely cause him to brace.

“You’re mocking me?” She gave a knowing smile to his statement continuing as they had until he noticed an opportunity to disarm her and seized it, striking her hand with enough force to have her drop the blade. She was in the same position as he was in just a few minutes before, this time however she didn’t hesitate, as soon as she was up she grabbed a nearby bucket full of water against the edge of his sword and proceeded to throw an electric shock his way almost instantly. With little time to comprehend what just happened Felix increased the range between them, her strikes became relentless this time, and unlike before, she quickly grabbed her wooden sword and set it on fire.

Felix cursed as he attempted to block the blows, he knew while her strikes were fast, they were predictable, but it didn’t help that she kept throwing other dark magic his way while having a burning wooden sword in the other, one that was slowly charring his blade each time it struck. The dance became more like a one-sided argument as she could direct him anyway she wanted as Felix was primarily focused on not getting burned or electrocuted.

Before he knew it, he was staring at the sky and his back cried out from a sudden impact to the ground. Gathering his bearings he realized that the ground beneath him was frozen, and that she guided him all the way back to the spot where she originally threw the bucket in order to throw off his footing, literally.

“That is why I’m teaching you.” Byleth spoke matter of factly, “You aren’t a leader so a battalion is not efficient, you rely too much upon physical weaponry which can be pulled from you immediately. You fight alone and against a crowd, lack of resources would be your worst enemy.”

Felix didn’t say anything; he was still too high on adrenaline to really process everything that she just said.

“I get it.” He said after a moment of silence, given how fast she kicked his ass with a deadly combo of magic and swords he more than understood that she fully intended to supplement his combat abilities with magic not replace it entirely. The same small smile graced her lips as she offered her hand to him.

The next day Ingrid and Sylvain found Felix in the study hall again, this time Byleth was there beside him.

“Is it just me or is he more engrossed than ever in those books?” Ingrid asked.

“Probably cause Prof Byleth is teaching him after all.” Sylvain responded, “It’s really easy to talk with her when she goes on about reason magic.” Ingrid shot him an irritated glare.

“I highly doubt it’s that.” She said cooly.

“True, Felix is a bit dense with that stuff I guess.” Sylvain rubbed his chin with a cheeky expression.

“Sylvain she’s our teacher.” Ingrid berated.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Sylvain, have you finished that homework that I asked for?” Byleth called from across the way, her eyes set right on him. Sylvain did his best to deflect her unwavering stare but both Ingrid and Felix could tell that he was thrown off by the icy glare as well.

“Not yet but…” He trailed off.

“Then get on it.” She said before returning back to the book Felix was mulling over.

“Yes Ma’am” Sylvain uttered.

**Author's Note:**

> Small oneshot after hearing that Felix was a lone-wolf and there is a master classification that works well with his particular skillset. 
> 
> Just a disclaimer, I know magic in FE doesn't work like the way Byleth uses it but I thought it was an interesting idea to have Byleth be more of a battle-mage sort given that their blade extends to the moon but it's also cannon that they are highly perceptive.


End file.
